Over the last 10 years now we have seen Social media and the internet generally, gradually becoming some of the most effective marketing areas for small to medium businesses. However, the current pandemic and its associated captive audience has massively accelerated this process, Facebook for example have increased their traffic by over 78% and more than 92% of adults... Read More
This article is aimed at individuals not currently working as an independent adviser, considering becoming a mortgage broker and wondering if it would be right for them. As well as advisers currently trading as registered individuals, working for an established mortgage broker and considering how easy or difficult it would be for them to start trading independently. Firstly I would... Read More
Recently I’ve had a number of conversations with brokers who were wondering if they would be accepted by a network, so I thought it might be worth a few words to explain what we at Which Network think most networks are looking for in an AR, what constitutes an almost certain No and what the alternatives are if you... Read More
Many financial pundits are now not expecting the UK economy to turn around until late 2022 and even though many mortgage brokers are still working flat out at the minute, this won’t last forever. Hardly a surprise given the ever-present Covid problem with long-Covid increasingly looking like an economic as well as a physiological condition. In fact, I would... Read More
A very good question and certainly not an easy one to answer. The collapse of a network can and often does have catastrophic consequences. One of the first indications of a problem is usually late payments on proc fees or more likely commission payments from insurers. Historically, networks suffering financial hardships have invariably come forward with a string of... Read More
Hands up everyone who thinks that all banks and building societies have wrongly been portrayed in the popular media, are actually just massively misunderstood and are really not for profit institutions whose only aims are to help the public save money and provide a valuable income stream for mortgage brokers and IFA’s. Nobody, well I think you’re all just... Read More
So first of all, let me apologise for the delay in publishing this quarters figures, nevertheless they may be late but they’re here now. As you can see, the table shows a modest growth of 38 (0.71%) in the basket of networks used for the compilation. As always, I should point out that the information for Jul/Aug/Sept as presented in... Read More
As a small or medium sized mortgage broker or financial adviser the quote “nothing is nothing” which has been variously attributed to Beckett, Molloy and Shakespeare is far more than just another insignificant saying. The phrase has been used more recently in advertising by an Japanese electronics company and a motor manufacturer, but actually is far more important in... Read More
Often when we think of businesses giving to charity we think of big business, like Jeff Bezos the founder of Amazon who gave away $2 billion last year or Microsoft and the Bill Gates Foundation giving a paltry $150 million. But the fact is that supporting local charities and worthy causes can also be a good thing for small... Read More
With lenders sometimes seeming to strike brokers from their panels for very little reason and no effective means of appeal for the unfortunate advisers it’s getting more and more important to check out any new introducers in as much depth as you can. This was brought graphically to my notice when Which Network had a call from a broker (let’s... Read More
